Milk
by A Vague Shape In The Dark
Summary: Peter visits a moonlit beach in an attempt to rid his mind of Natalie Holden. (Reposted)


**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any rights to the characters in this story or _Milk_ by Garbage.  
**A/N: **This story ran through my head while very sleepily listening to Garbage, and was written while waiting for my Father at the Doctor's office the next day. Listened to Bjork's _Medulla_, Kate Bush's _The Dreaming_ and the Amelie soundtrack while writing.  
**You'll get the idea that I don't care much for Ripley. Please forgive me if you like him.**  
**For:** The dear person who uploaded _The Story of Peter and Natalie _on YouTube.

**P**eter Carlisle stood on the edge of a shoreline. His bare feet sinking into the moist sand as he looked towards the moon casting its long shadows over the beach, rocks and distant rolling waves. The cool sea air blew past him and his mind drifted away. The moment was so strange and unreal, it left him feeling disconnected from his body.

Air escaped his lungs and he became caught up in the feeling of it, suddenly flooded with the awareness that he was truly alive and moments such as these are fleeting. Sometimes, caught up in the grind of police duty and the dull routine of daily life, he would forget that he wasn't viewing life as though it were a movie that could only be played out one way over and over.

Lately he'd felt conscious but not, as though he were someone else who had long since died. What have all those before me felt? He wondered. All those millions before me have probably had this feeling at one point or another and where are they now? They lay beneath my feet. I'll never know them, as one not too long from now will never know what I've thought as I've stood here.

As Peter grew terribly desolate his mind turned to Natalie Holden and how much he longed to see her.

He'd hoped something would take his mind from her after escaping the unavoidable loneliness of his room, but it was useless. He had known her for only a short amount of time but she'd quickly become an obsession. He didn't know how to live without her, and it frightened him that he had fallen in love so quickly and passionately.

Huge waves crashed against the rocks before him, and the sight of immeasurable recklessness fit his mood perfectly. He lowered his body to lay on the dampened sand, having already tossed his jacket, socks and shoes on a pile of nearby driftwood. He was so consumed by bitterness and want, he didn't care what sort of state he was in when he staggered back to his apartment.

Peter drained the plastic bottle of chocolate milk he'd brought and, while still laying on the beach; gave himself to the waves.

~o~O~o~

Natalie looked to the ceiling as she dreaded the thought of her husband joining her in bed. Her lips parted, and the song that issued forth came as if from the depths of her soul.

_"I am milk, I am red hot kitchen..."_

Ripley stumbled in the bedroom after relieving himself. He threw his body in bed and landed as if a bag of rocks. Natalie could smell the perfume of a cheap whore on his body and felt herself die a little more inwardly. His dispassionate touch made her want to push him away, but she was so depressed she gave herself without a fight. She closed her eyes and felt the weight of his body take her breath. As Ripley soon found his way within her, Natalie's mind went to Peter Carlisle. She thought of Peter's warmth breaking her, of Peter's mouth, of his body and the bruises his sharp bones had left on her skin when she'd known him as a lover. She couldn't easily pretend that Ripley was Peter, but she tried with all her might. It was the only thing that kept her from going mad as she coped with nightly urges.

~o~O~o~

Peter closed his eyes, welcoming the heaviness of the waves as they washed over his body. The waves acted as a veil between this world and the next, transporting him into a sort of delirium. With eyes still shut he focused all of his energy on Natalie. Hoping that she too might feel all of his longing.

_"I am lost so I am cruel. But I'd be love and sweetness if I had you. I'm waiting, I am waiting for you,"_ Peter sang to the sea.

Unbeknownst to Peter, Natalie was at that same moment focusing all of her being on him as well. They came to no longer be whole; but ghostly vapors of themselves in two locations at once as they visited each other to comfort in what way they could; not being able to please each other by the literal pressing of bones and flesh.

Peter's angst was diluted as the waves acted as Natalie's body to embrace and caress every part of him, leaving him shivering beneath their touch. He did not yield nor shy away from the inquiring waves as they searched his every crevasse; their touch was Natalie's and he let her have him without hesitation.

~o~O~o~

Natalie lay beneath Ripley as he used her with the same emotional value as the prostitute he'd been with earlier in the evening, but she no was longer filled with sorrow. In a moment brought on by despair and want, the air surrounding her transported the steady breath of the man she loved. It was also his voice she heard instead of Ripley's emotionless grunts. She dared not open her eyes because she no longer felt the weight of her husband, but the thin frame of Peter Carlisle. His smell, the stubble of his chin, the caress of his thin fingers. Nothing was of Ripley anymore and she felt her heart bleed openly for Peter; he was now part of her. Natalie let herself be swept away and didn't give it another thought. Peter was here, and she was transfixed by the touch of his uneven teeth gnawing her neck.

_"I can use my tears to bring you home,"_ Natalie whispered.

Peter heard her voice and crawled into the waves to meet her. Only his head appeared above the depths, but soon he submerged and found himself enraptured further by her soft cries and touch.

They would soon find themselves removed from this pleasure as the phenomenon wore off, but as long as it lingered they gave their entire bodies over to the intoxication that they did not understand nor wish to, for fear it was madness.


End file.
